Friday, February 22, 2013

I consider myself a right leaning Libertarian. I hold many conservative ideals like the right to bear arms, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility, plus I believe in God. I am also against abortions, which is a conservative position, however I am pro-choice in that I don't think that my opinions should legislate others out of whatever they want to do. That's just me.

Another thing that I am against is drug use, however just like abortion, I don't think my opinions should be turned into a law. Does that make me a pussy? Ann Coulter thinks so.

Conservative talker Ann Coulter appeared Thursday on Fox Business Network’s “Stossel” to do battle with the show’s Libertarian host — and his 1,400+ Libertarian guests.

Their biggest point of contention? Social Conservatism versus the Libertarian “Individuals Should Be Left Alone” approach.

The evening began pleasantly enough, the two discussing whether the U.S. should’ve invaded Iraq following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Coulter believes military action was justified because Saddam Hussein was “definitely looking for uranium from Niger.”But then things became a little more heated when Stossel decided to shift gears and brought up legalizing drugs.

“Libertarians and pot,” Coulter laughed. “This is why people think libertarians are pussies.”

Coulter continued by saying:

We’re living in a country that is 70-percent socialist, the government takes 60 percent of your money. They are taking care of your health care, of your pensions. They’re telling you who you can hire, what the regulations will be. And you want to suck up to your little liberal friends and say, “Oh, but we want to legalize pot."

You know, if you’re a little more manly you would tell them what your position on employment discrimination is. How about that? But it’s always “We want to legalize pot."

First of all Ann, take a look at yesterday's post about Rumsfeld's memos on why we really went to war in Iraq. Second, wanting the government to stop telling us how to run our lives does not make us pussies.

Besides, she makes it sound like legalizing pot is the only thing on the Libertarian platform. She is wrong. The Libertarians also want to cut government spending and bring the size of the federal government back down to a smaller size, the way it was intended. Libertarians want to truly lower taxes, and abolish the IRS. Libertarians want to get rid of the Federal Reserve and return to a gold standard so our government isn't controlled by big bankers. Libertarians want to stop sending foreign aid to countries that hate us, and want to stop being the police of the world and bring out troops home.

Marijuana is a very small portion of the Libertarian platform, but still, Coulter and other RINO's want to focus on the trivial in order to demonize what Republicans used to represent. A party that truly believes in smaller government.

However since Coulter wants to focus on marijuana, lets look at that for a minute. What happened during Prohibition? You know, back in 1919 when Alcohol was made illegal. What happened then? According to Wikipedia:

Although alcohol consumption did decline as a whole, there was a rise in alcohol consumption in many cities along with significant increases in organized crime related to its production and distribution.

The same thing is happening now with the War on Drugs. Because we have made substances like marijuana illegal, it has opened up huge markets for illegal drug trade. Just like Prohibition, the illegal drug trade is also a big cause of gun violence and the rise of organized crime and other gang activities in the United States and other places in the world.

The truth is if we legalize some recreational drugs, which aren't really any more harmful than alcohol and cigarettes, then it would probably do more to reduce gun violence in the country. It certainly would do a better job than disarming law abiding citizens.

Seeing as how Coulter is a gun-rights advocate herself, perhaps that is a perspective she can look at in regards to legalizing marijuana instead of turning to childish name calling.